Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1887-04-09

made by some of the companies against
| others railroad men have openly con-
fessed their fraudulent practices, and
sometimes boasted of The large sums
they accumulate by them. Putting
these together. you can form at least
an approximate calculation. 1 doub:
not you will fiud the sum total of the
plumber they have taken in the shape
of excessive charges to be frightful
Three or four years ago committee
of the United States senate collected
the materials, and made a report upon
this general subject, in which they
showed that all excess of five cents per
hundred weight charged on the whole
agricultural crop of the then current
year would amount to seventy millions
of dollars. Upon the crop of the last
year it would doubtless come nearer q
hundred millions. The railroads
would not get this sum, because not
near all OF it is carried, but it would
operate as an export tax operates; that
is to say, the producer, the consumer,
or the intermediate dealer would lose
that amount on the whole crop, carried
or not carried. In 1880 the charges
from Chicago to the eastern markets
were raised from ten cents per hundred
weight to thirty-f five cents, ,sthe latter
rate being unquestionably twice as
high as fair one. You can count
from these data the terrible loss sus-
tanned by the land, labor and trade of
the country. 1t was the end and the
attainment of a combination still sub
sisting between the great trunk lines.
as they arc called to pool their receipts,
TO stop all competition, 10 unite the
stealing power OF all into one grand
monopoly, and put the whole people
at their mercy. 1t was criminal
conspiracy by the common and statute
law of all the states.
The magnitude of these excessive
charges Is not the worst thing about
them. The corporations think it per-
, fectlY right to raise or lower the freight
as they please withou. regard to the
rights of interests of anybody but
themselves. A grain grower, manu-
facturer, miner, or merchant, who can
sell his goods at profit, if he can get
them carried at the rates of to-day,
may find himself ruined tomorrow by
an increase which did not enter
into his calculations. A rise in the
| market enures not TO the behcht of the
! producer, but to the use of the carry
ing corporations, vii. openly avOw
that their rule is to c.arge in all cases
rs much "as the traffic will bear"
that is to say, as much as the shipper
! eau submit to without being driven
entirely of the road. You must see
plainly that this power to depress
agriculture, to diminish the profits of
/: manufacturing industry, and to skin
/; the commerce of the whole country by
the arbitrary use of sliding scale upon
freights, cannot safely be trusted to
human hands, and especially not to
Irresponsible corporations whose inter-
est, as we'll as their acknowledged
principle of action, constantly impel
them to abuse 1t. Can it be that q
Pennsylvania legislature will hesitate
to curb the career of this destructive
monopoly by adjusting the charges ac-
o)rding to some rule equitable, fixed
and certain?
But even this sinks into insigaifcaace
compared with the wrong and evil of
their Determinations. Common JUS
tice, sound policy. every sense of duty
the whole spirit and letter OF the law,
requires them to give equal facilities
In the use of the roads, and to charge
them at the rates tor the same class Of
, goods, according to weight and dis.
about this. Every unprejudiced mar
who has sense enough to know his
right hand from his left acknowledges
that equality must be the rule of right
} aud he understands this perfectly well
without looking at the constitution
/ where 1t is solelnnly declared to be
, part OF the lea legu'n, the law of laws
and the rule OF all rules on the subject.
: Yet this sacred principle is constantly
: and steadily violated, trampled under
3 foot and treated with heartleseu -
} tempt. "a =
AT the slightest slaRGrI
the enOrm0gH
sequential,
} intlict upon I - - y
invests his ca1 . enploys his TINT
, In mining or manufacturing, can b.
. driven into bankruptcy at any time b,
e discrimination against him, and Il
: favor of his competitors. This 10 dom
l every day, and all the time. not in /,
8 few cases here and there, but system mat
: ically and regularly, whenever carry
3 ing monopoly cOnceives that its owl
interests can be promoted in that ne.
8 fariOus way, and it will continue to b,
done until the prohibition OF the con
s stitution is enforced by penal enact.
Y ment.
Instead OF breaking the foul enormi
Ties, Will give you sample; conve
: nlent because 1t is small and easil!
j, handled. A neighbor and friend o
+ mine Tin partnership with another
= became the lessee and operator of |
g coal mine in Northumberland, For ,
: short distance they were Obliged l,
9 carry their product over one of th,
8 branches of the Pennsylvania company
Y they were charged for the use Of tn,
n road and motive power alone-thers
@ was no loading or unloading In thu
o case, and no cars were furnished b,
J. the company--at about the rate q
: twenty cents per ton nor uilof -
}. others whom - -
favor were r II z ~
I. paid the e. g
= brought sui{ 4. /
9 was as simple Z case q extoftion 4
r can be conceived: but certain officerl
v of the Pennsylysnis railroad comnan,
b swOre that in their Judgment il wa
e right to commit it, and moreover de.
d clared that it was a usual. common ant
!. customary nractice I hlush 10 o..
- lodno hof IN, oil kbfo sL>